(Newser)
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A badly doctored propaganda photo has made hapless officials in China's Huili county the laughing stock of a nation of 1.3 billion people. The photo on the rural county's website appeared to show county officials levitating above the road project they were inspecting, the Guardian reports. The county apologized and pulled the photo—but not before it had spread through countless blogs and chatrooms.
Chinese Internet users came up with a flood of parodies, showing the officials on the moon, at a soccer game, surrounded by dinosaurs, or joined by North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. Officials blame the photo on a government photographer who thought the photos he had taken of the leaders inspecting the road weren't impressive enough and decided to combine a few of them.
